The Truth in The Artemis Complex
by The Director of words
Summary: This is an account of the events that lead up to and inspired J. Argon's best selling book, The Artemis Complex, from Artemis Fowl's admittance to the clinic to his release as a moderately sane human. AxH Follows on from TAC so there are spoilers.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Extracts from the notes of Doctor J. Argon on patient 210961, Artemis Fowl,

_Subject was admitted to the J. Argon Clinic, Haven City on the 3__rd__ of September at 08:17. Patient had an escort of 14 fairies including Major H. Short and Commander T. Kelp._

_Although we wouldn't begin treatment today, Fowl shows signs of very late stages of the Atlantis Complex, including physical exhaustion, obsessive behaviour, and fixation on numbers, and I find it doubtful the escorts number is a coincidence._

…

_Patient continues to be, not uncooperative, but highly resistant to normal therapy given to those with Atlantis. Possible factors of this include species difference, knowledge of usual psychiatric methods, and unsettling accuracy in observation, which has lead to many employees to refuse to enter the same section of the building, on top of those who refused because of the "smell of human"._

…

_Fowl usually has visitors every week, and his mother and Butler visit every month. Patient may have to have limitations put on visiting hours, as treatment can be harder after these visits. Guilt being the main cause for Atlantis and those close to him seem to erupt this more than anything else._

…

_I have given up attempting treatment on Thursday's as patient doesn't react at all, eat, leave his bed, and seems to sleep most of the day. Unless Orion is principle, but I'm not sure I can face therapy with him anyway. _

…

_Despite treatment, Atlantis is progressing and other personalities are emerging and each seems to possess different wants and needs. Orion has taken to a mixture of fiction and non-fiction entertainment materials, seeming to favour documentaries and romances. When asked about this favouring Orion justified it as a "journey of self discovery of what is right, just and true", and although I think Orion lacks the ability to lie I doubt he tells the whole truth all the time, just most of the time._

_Still the development of new personalities means the treatment isn't working. Sorely tempted to throw the data pad on Atlantis Complex out the window, figuratively and literally._


	2. Settled in Unsettling Circumstance

_Unusually prompt update for me, anyway new chapter and it should be much longer than the prologue._

Chapter 1: Settled in Unsettling Circumstances

_Dr. J. Argon case note: Although we didn't begin treatment on the first day, the team that worked on Artemis ' Complex did do extensive research on Fowl, specifically on his previous dealings with The People, as magic IS one of the key elements to Atlantis Complex. We also studied several video logs made by the subject and we approximate Atlantis has been active for several months. Still, we enjoy a challenge, and a human in the late stages of Atlantis Complex doesn't get much more challenging from a psychiatrist's point of view._

_Note to self: Remember security during interviews with patient._

…

Artemis was led down another corridor of the J. Argon Clinic, by the doctor himself with his escort, which completely comprised of Holly, Commander Trouble Kelp and an assistant to the Doctor. The others were being stationed around the building and Artemis had been told in a way that sounded more like a threat by Trouble that there would be "guards stationed around the clock till you're fried or the Complex is."

"Not that that would stop me if I wanted," Thought Artemis, "to escape, that is to leave."

"Stop with number counting Artemis," Orion thought in, "Numbers can't harm."

Artemis winced at the 8 at he was convinced he had done it on purpose. It had become a recent annoyance that Orion could now chirp in whenever he wanted, even if Artemis was in "control"

They stopped outside one room and Doctor Argon beckoned Artemis to enter first. Artemis pushed the door open ("No handle." Artemis observed. "Yes, no handle.") and looked at his quarters, cell, loony room whatever you want to call it for, how long he didn't know, although he had guessed several months, 10 months at worst (he didn't want to think about a year).

The room itself was very plain, well plain to Artemis. A simple clinically white cuboid room with an equally white bed, a laptop he recognised as one of his and a desk with a single chair on either side. Artemis tried not to notice the straps that lay limply on either side of the bed, that the only window had a metal grill or the fact that everything seemed to be bolted to the floor. But he did notice, and subsequently noticed that the only thing that wasn't bolted down was his laptop and the suitcase his mother had brought with her for him, which now lay on the bed.

As Artemis was scanning the room, the other three fairies filed in behind him. He was however only vaguely aware of the conversation the other fairies were having as he sat down at the appropriately sized chair by the desk, the one furthest away from the door.

Then he was suddenly aware of a lack of conversation and Artemis looked up from the desk to see that Trouble, Argon and his assistant had left, leaving only Holly.

She sat down at the fairy sized chair, the one closest to the door.

"Arty?"

Artemis smiled weakly up at her. "I am alright. Just tired."

"Address the fair maiden properly." Orion thought furiously and seemingly for good measure. "You boorish cad."

Artemis tried very hard to cope with another 8, and ignored Orion.

Holly bit her lip and Artemis hoped that he hadn't physically reacted to the 8.

"Holly, I will be fine. The Atlantis Complex is curable and I am going to be in one of the best of fairy psychiatric hospitals." Artemis reassured her despite his nest of fear and doubt. Holly didn't look as convinced as Artemis wanted her to be either and decided to change the subject.

"Where did the Doctor and Commander go once we arrived?"

Holly seemed to frown slightly, either from memory or the 10 Artemis wasn't sure.

"I don't know where the Doctor went, but Tro… Commander Kelp was checking on the guards."

"I am being guarded now am I? To protect me or the people from me?"

Holly's frown intensified. "I'd like to think to protect you. But the Commander and the Council think of it as the other." She snorted. "I sometimes doubt they would help you at all if it wasn't for Opal."

Artemis nodded; it made sense that the council wanted him to sort out that particular problem. Being the one who caused it. A pang of guilt shot through him at this and he tried to compose himself.

"What has made the Commander Kelp so bitter towards me?"

She smiled. "He's never really forgiven you or Butler for the whole kidnapping incident, or when Butler destroyed his unit."

Artemis smiled at the memory. Till he started to remember how many had been in the unit. Was it 16? Four fours…

Holly then broke in on his panicked thoughts.

"Remember, we are here Arty, when you need us." Holly stood up. "I've got to get back on duty now, but I'll visit soon 'kay."

Artemis nodded absentmindedly and Holly left the room, leaving Artemis to his thoughts.

It would be several hours before Artemis moved from his seat, and even when he finally did he was surprised how long he had sat for. Deciding he might as well get settled in, Artemis moved over to unpack his suitcase. Of course, his mother having packed it, the first thing he saw when he opened the case was a bright red T-shirt with the word (if you can call it that) "Randomosity" scrawled in some graffiti style and with the picture of an obviously not accurate boy. A note stuck to the shirt read, in his mother's handwriting, "You promised." Artemis chewed his tongue in annoyance, and then wandered if making the word "Randomosity" an official word (by hacking into every English Dictionary printing companies and adding it) he would feel better about wearing it. Even in his mentally fragile state Artemis knew it wouldn't make a difference.

Deciding to wear the shirt one time only (when his mother next visited) he stuffed the offending piece of cloth underneath his bed and searched through the rest of the case.

After discarding most of the shirts with writing and pictures on, he was left with a respectable pile of… "Clothes" and only 1 extra suit.

After realising he had no closet to put these in he returned them to the suitcase, but before he dumped them in he noticed a small envelope.

Artemis reclosed the suitcase on top of his "acceptable" clothes and opened the envelope. Inside was a picture of Artemis' family, at a charity bake sell if Artemis remembered correctly as he looked at the five of them around the stall. His mother and father each held a twin who both seemed to be attempting an escape, and Artemis stood slightly in the background, in his usual suit.

On the back of the picture was a small note, in Butler's handwriting this time.

"Remember what you're coming back to." Artemis smirked slightly.

"Definitely gone soft, old friend." He thought and was about to pocket both the envelope and picture when he felt something else move inside the envelope.

It was a fairy gold coin, although slightly less valuable, monetary wise, than usual because it had a hole in the middle. Flicking the coin up in the air with a slight sense of delight Artemis then caught it and placed it inside his breast coat pocket.

The room itself was small, the view through the grill was good, but the door was locked, so at present Artemis was stuck, even his laptop, being human made couldn't even comprehend the many wireless internet connections Artemis could get on it.

"Foaly's removed the satellite uplink." Artemis thought angrily. "I will have to make a program that translates the fairy technology for my laptop." But Artemis didn't have the patience or the mood to start on it now and instead updated his diary over the last few days. No doubt the computer would constantly be checked over, so Artemis was slightly more platonic than usual.

Once complete, he felt no desire other than to sleep and although the bed was the right size and comfortable, a niggling fear constantly kept him awake. The bed had 4 sides. And despite Orion's attempted comforting, insults and annoying lullabies Artemis slept badly that first night.

_Well there's a very prompt normal sized chapter. Please Read and Review. Good comments, bad ones both are constructive. It makes it that much easier to write more._


	3. Day One

_A/N: Thanks to reviewers who helped me finish this next chapter so promptly. And I apologise in advance for all my grammar mistakes in previous, current and future works. Grammar is the bane of my life :)_

Day One

_Dr. J. Argon case note: Fowl has not been sleeping well, which is not unusual to those with Atlantis, brainwaves and reaction when awaking suggest nightmares. Though the subject himself has yet to confirm this, though I doubt he will. I'll have to add some strong sleeping pills to his medication, as treatment is difficult with any tired patient, even a human one._

…

Artemis awoke suddenly. Again, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand, he checked the time. 4AM… Deciding not to bother with the exhausting effort that was required to fall asleep, he got out of bed and started pacing the room. From one end of the room to the other, he counted five steps. Five. Five. Five. Four? Artemis heart skipped a beat before increasing rapidly to about a 130 BPM, which is generally considered the "terrified" speed of blood. Taking a deep calming breath, he walked the next length in six steps, before stopping. 25 steps, five fives. Very good, reassuring, safe.

Orion scoffed at Artemis. "Five fives are safe? Even to someone who's been stuck in your head that sounds completely barmy. Or maybe it's some kind of spell? What is it an escape spell? Healing? Levitation?"

Artemis ignored Orion. "Trying to reason with one self is just as insane as having another self. Maybe." He reasoned and sat down at the desk. A few minutes later he found himself unconsciously tapping his gold coin on the surface, with no memory of taking it out. Forcing himself to return it to his jacket pocket, he decided he needed a project. "Something healthy to obsess over." He thought. "Rather than your obsession with fours and fives." Orion added helpfully. Artemis stayed silent, which is quite hard in terms of thought, especially if you're Artemis. "Exercise!" Orion suggested, and Artemis physically blanched. "Haha, I knew you could hear me. Well I'm sick of walking about in a body that can barely do that, and what it can't do at all."

And after a persistent campaign of nagging and annoyance Artemis agreed to at least try push ups. Finding the largest space in the room, and lying on his stomach tried to push himself up with his arms. He regretted the agreement almost immediately as Orion seemed to have taken it upon himself to goad Artemis as a personal trainer would, which on top of the killing exertion and pain he felt physically didn't make it any less annoying.

"Three, come on you sack of potatoes, move it!"

"What kind of insult is that?" Artemis mentally panted at Orion. "It is completely inaccurate even as a poor analogy."

"Don't backchat maggot!"

"Ma…?"

"Four!"

Fear of jinxing his "exercise" Artemis found a burst of strength.

"Five!"

Before collapsing.

"I'm sorry Artemis." Orion said in a lamentable voice. "My insults weren't good enough to keep you going."

Artemis' face being in the padding of the floor of the cell would've muffled his voice if he had had the breath to speak. Instead he mentally asked.

"Why insult me? Are insults supposed to help my exercise?"

"They do in the books you read."

"Past tense, Orion. Not present."

"The trainer is always supposed to show a gruff outside, but secretly has a soft centre and the relationship is supposed to grow from master and student, to something close to father and son."

Artemis thought of past teachers he had had, and decided to start ignoring Orion again.

…

Artemis approached the only small grated window in his cell and looked out, trying to think of a new obsessive project. Through the small holes he could see Haven. The sun strips hummed with life above the fairy city.

"Very convincing," Artemis thought. "Doubt many fairies are satisfied with it though."

"Maybe a design for a better sun system then?" Orion suggested.

Artemis shook his head. "Although I could design it better, fairies would still consider it secondary to the real sun. It is more psychological than technological, and I can not change how they think."

For some reason as he thought this though, his paranoia of fours exploded and he suddenly became aware he was looking through a square window, a square grill, with square holes and the window in question overlooked a square (the "square" wasn't actually the shape of a square but it still frightened Artemis).

Four, fours! And as Artemis reeled from the window in primal terror, he heard a whisper, in his head or in the room he could not tell. Whispering. One word. Over and over again.

"Why?" this whisper…, well whispered. "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?"

The part of Artemis' brain that wasn't struck with primal terror tried frantically to regain control, continuing to send over and over again the same calming technique. Breathe in deeply, close your eyes and clench your fists. But the body didn't respond and it wasn't until it added a new order did the message get through.

"Rub the coin. Focus on it. No corners, no numbers. Concentrate."

…

When Artemis regained composure he found the coin in his hand again. Again without the memory of bringing it out. Putting it back once more, Artemis turned and was surprised to find Dr. Argon already seated at the desk, and guard behind him, both watching him.

"They must have come in when I was…distracted. Yes." Artemis thought, remaining composed."

The doctor himself motioned towards Artemis' seat and Artemis, after a short pause, sat down.

The talk was short, and Artemis was only half interested in it. Absorbing only the important stuff it boiled down to, attempted prodding at character, a short explanation about the shock therapy they would perform tomorrow and his pills for the day.

Artemis gulped them back, with some water, and merely allowed the doctor to drone on as he worked on his own plans, having decided on his project.

Seemingly slightly discouraged by Artemis' silence Dr. Argon left soon after. As soon as the door closed on the two Artemis stood up and walked over to his laptop. Checking around the room he could see several cameras all trained on him. Booting up his laptop, and choosing the best position to hide the screen he began working quickly on a translation program for the PC, so it could hack into fairy computers. Normally this sort of program was on all his computers but Foaly had been at this one and had scrubbed the entire thing of his hacking programs. So he had to rebuild.

Ten minutes later the program had been finished, though Artemis could've done it faster if he didn't have to act as if was writing his journal instead. A shift every few minutes and no-one would get suspicious.

His next step was to deal with the cameras, just for a short while. Hacking into the institutes systems was easy and why shouldn't it be, it is not as if anyone cares for something as important as cameras? Artemis almost snorted at that but checked him self. No unusual activity. He soon found the cameras for his room and he was soon looking down on himself.

A slight frown would've crossed his face had Artemis allowed but requiring no unusual activity, his face remained blank.

Artemis had expected some kind of clock on the screen of the cameras to record the time. He had planned on simply looping the feed of the previous ten minutes while allowing the clock to carry on normally. However the clock itself wasn't connected to the camera in anyway. It was a small independent digital display stuck on the lens of the camera.

"It just needs a bit of circumventing." Artemis thought. "A small adjustment."

So instead of simply looping the feed completely Artemis allowed it to see the clock live. Once he had finished he stood up watching the screen. The cameras showed Artemis sitting down and typing. Artemis smiled and turned the computer off. Stage 3.

…

About an hour later after stage 4 and 5, Artemis finished his work and took his new flash drive out of the laptop. Of course the LEP wouldn't have allowed any kind of portable memory, this one Artemis had cannibalised by taking his pc apart. Of course the computer was now less powerful, but Artemis considered that a small price for being able to hide things off the laptop, mainly his hacking programs. Hiding the drive inside his pocket he took cameras off loop, slightly grateful that such a simple tactic had worked, and shut the computer down.

…

About an hour later Artemis was lying on his bed thinking about when dinner would be when the door to his cell opened and Holly came in. Originally a guard tried to come in after her but she glared at him and he decided against it.

"Good morning mud boy." Holly yawned as she sat down at the foot of his bed.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "It is 7PM, not morning."

Holly scowled at Artemis. "I just got up and I'm still tired. If I'm tired it's morning."

"Why are you so tired?" Artemis asked. He already knew the answer; he just hoped the question would put her in a better mood.

"Ooh, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with having to escort you here, before having to then get only 4 hours sleep thanks to a mixture of red tape paperwork and worry about a certain friend. And the reason I have to get up so early for my night shift is to visit said friend, who then asks me why I am tired."

Artemis remained silent as Holly ranted and decided to continue his muteness.

Holly sighed. "I'm sorry Artemis. Just stress from all the work I've got today and being tired doesn't help."

"You do not have to visit every morning, Holly, especially if you have to sacrifice sleep to do come here."

Holly smiled and punched Artemis' shoulder lightly.

"That's silly Artemis, it's not that much earlier and besides I promised I'd be here to help you through this."

"But…" Artemis protested.

"Arty," Holly said with a smile but with a slight determination in her voice that said the discussion was over.

"Did not seem like much of a discussion to me." Artemis thought, but let it drop.

...

_A/N: Thanks to all the readers and reviewers. Sorry I didn't get this up sooner but I'll try to be faster for the next chapter._

_Anyway what did you think? _


	4. Treatment

_First things first, sorry for not posting sooner. Anyway thanks for all the reviews and enjoy this next chapter._

Treatment

_Dr. J. Argon case note: Patient's perceptive I.Q. makes difficulties for him. Both our treatment and his own mental condition, suffer from his continued and accurate observations of appearance and mentality. Breakdowns of staff are increasing and Artemis shows signs of developing further stages of Atlantis, very quickly._

Orion awoke; he stared up at the ceiling trying to see pictures in it, as one may with clouds. Unfortunately even Orion couldn't see picture in a plain white, and then he realised HE had awoke. Not Artemis. He grinned, he could still "hear" Artemis conscience dreaming.

He jumped out of bed, literally (why say something unless literally Orion reasoned), and immediately began to enjoy being principle. As it turns out this happened to be exercise, so when Artemis finally did rouse he found his body doing sit ups, push ups and all those other healthy "ups".

Suffice to say he wasn't pleased.

"What are you doing Orion?" Artemis groaned inside Orion's head.

"Getting fit." Orion answered, keeping it short as he concentrated on his workout.

If Artemis was in control of the nose he would have wrinkled it.

"But you are getting sweaty."

"Even I know that exercise makes you sweat. Unless you're a dog… I'm not a dog am I?"

At this Artemis disengaged from the conversation, leaving Orion to ramble, which went something along the lines of.

"Of course if I am a dog, maybe I should change my name to Sirius…"

Artemis internally snorted, and then started hoping that Orion would at least have a shower afterwards.

…

Orion was on the laptop when Dr. Argon entered the room followed by a nurse and LEP guard. Orion paused the film he was watching, one that Artemis had spoilt with his typical boorish criticisms, and turned to see the still standing fairies.

"Good morning beings of magic. What can I do for you this gorgeous day?"

Artemis groaned, both at the sentence and the question. It was obvious what they wanted.

Dr. Argon raised an eyebrow. "Orion?"

"Yes?"

"Please sit down." He said gesturing at the opposite chair as he himself sat down.

Orion sat down easily and without question, which was followed by a very long silence.

"Is the not doing anything part of the treatment?" Artemis thought which Orion decided to relay to Argon.

"A small part, yes." He paused then asked. "Orion, I would like you to give your opinion on Artemis Fowl. Sharing a body with such an individual can't be easy."

Orion let out a thoroughly unjustified sigh or at least that was Artemis' opinion.

"Where do I begin? He obsesses with boring things, doesn't exercise, spends to long at a computer and he isn't passionate about anything, that isn't a convoluted plan or centuries old."

The doctor wrote a few notes down before asking. "These obsessions you talk about. I assume you're talking about consistent tapping and importance of certain numbers."

"Yes those, but other things as well. I mean his need to break down a person, even when being casual. Right now he has come to the conclusion, that you are almost as insane as the patients in here, have already seen a centaur and a goblin today, and have recently broken up with your wife but are doubtful to get married or even go out again, even though you probably have a couple hundred years to live. That is if you don't commit suicide first. All of this from your outward appearance now." Orion paused for breath. "Dull, obsessive and a waste of perception, which could be used for better things."

Dr. Argon paused for a second, trying not to, but failing, to look rattled before continuing. "If you could please take your medication then follow us for your shock therapy."

The Doctor then handed Orion a small Styrofoam cup.

"Oooh, what's in my medication today good doctor? Mandrake root, moon fungus, su…?"

"You don't want to know what it's made of." Dr. Argon interrupted. "Now can you please take it so we can get on with it?"

"Yes of course, anything to get better after…"

"Just take it Orion." Artemis interrupted annoyed. "Now!"

Once Orion had swallowed the pills, Dr. Argon beckoned him to follow out into the white corridor.

As Orion passed rooms, turned corners and walked down flights of stairs, Artemis took in as much as he could from his environment. Creating mental maps of the hospital, lists of objects, computer terminals, cameras and, most importantly, checking the labels on every door. This influx of information was then brought to a halt when they entered a room labelled appropriately as "Shock Therapy".

"The room was similar to an operating theatre." This was Orion's first impression.

Artemis first impression however was of the hundreds of inter-coiled wires in the centre of the room which led from a large computer to a worryingly small helmet, which sat atop a chair which gave him the conclusion of that was actually too complicated for many people to understand, but basically boiled down to, "Just a sophisticated electric chair."

The fairies seemed to be slightly apprehensive at this point, but Orion got in the chair and was strapped down with an almost chirpy air.

"This is going to hurt." Orion thought, and Artemis considered this to be Orion's smartest statement so far.

…

As it turns out it didn't hurt, the medication had included a sedative and so the next thing both Artemis and Orion could remember was waking up in bed, hair sticking up on end, aches and pains everywhere and an unpleasant burning smell.

"On the plus," Artemis thought as he sat up in bed. "I am in charge again. I can not have Orion being in charge when Holly visits…Again."

"I heard that." Orion thought back groggily. "What's so wrong about wanting to see my fair maiden?"

Artemis ignored him and rubbed his fried temples, he had a bit of a headache but he doubted that was unusual.

Taking out the portable flash drive he had hidden yesterday, he booted up his laptop and, putting the cameras on loop again, carried on his work.

…

About an hour later after hacking into and overseeing a few LEP missions, being careful to interfere gently enough to look innocent but enough to make a difference, like slight interference in the helmet to make the officers turn in the right direction and so on. Artemis also familiarised himself with intercepting and changing reports. If you were to ask Artemis ultimate goal for all this surveillance was, and if he told you truthfully (which I doubt), he would say.

"To be able to give and receive orders without detection."

Anyway after an hour of all that he decided, to stop for the night, his headache had been getting worse and he had been on the laptop a possibly suspicious amount of time. Besides he was expecting Holly soon.

As it turns out Artemis had timed it luckily right, has he had no sooner hidden the flash drive, when a cheerful Holly entered with a lot less cheerful Trouble Kelp.

Artemis' headache spiked and he winced slightly but otherwise gave a courteous greeting to the two fairies.

After a small silence, in which Orion screamed at Artemis to make small talk, Artemis attempted to make small talk.

"So, where are you two going on your date tonight?"

Orion groaned. "Normal people wouldn't know they are going on a date tonight."

"How would you know what normal people would know, Orion?"

"Because I am normal."

Artemis snorted then winced at the four, before catching Trouble's question.

"How did you know we were going out tonight?"

"Do you really want me to go into a long and complicated answer to that question, which involves several tiny observations, which led me to my conclusion? Well? Do you?"

Deciding to save himself from a lecture Trouble dropped it and Holly instead answered the initial question.

"We're going to see an action movie, what's it called again Trubs?"

Artemis could tell Trouble disliked the name, though he doubted Holly would notice it.

"The Last Fairy King."

"Ah," Artemis said rubbing his throbbing head. "That's nice, that…"

Artemis collapsed.

When the body re-opened its eyes he saw Trouble and Dr. Argon, standing over him with Holly propping him up.

"Artemis?"

A look of confusion came into the boy's eyes, before he coughed out in a different but instantly recognisable voice.

"Has anyone a fungus cigar?"

…

_Yay, our first taste of emulation. Certainly not going to be our last though._

_Anyway please review with your opinions. And sorry again for the late chapter._

HeHkkff


	5. The Emulation of Commander Root

The Emulation of Commander Root

_Dr. J. Argon case note: Recent developments have shown that Artemis Fowl is now emulating the deceased Commander Root. Although unheard of for real/dead personalities to come through, such personalities are usually weak copies dependent almost completely on the patient's knowledge of said personality. A good example of this would be to ask the emulated Root something the real Root would know but Fowl would not. The emulation would either not be able to answer or make one up._

_However I feel in Fowl's case he would have researched Commander Root thoroughly, so his emulation would seem real. _

_Must Remember, I am not talking to a ghost._

Artemis' body, which was actually inhabited by Commander Root, tapped the fungus cigar on the side of an ash tray and took a long pull on it, before expelling the noxious smoke back into the air. Artemis, Orion and Holly wrinkled their noses (though the first two didn't actually have noses) in disgust, Trouble didn't react and Doctor Argon joined him with another cigar, though he preferred a cigarette.

"Those are very bad for our health you know." Orion grumbled, and Artemis agreed.

Root scowled and thought replied. "Shut up. Since I'm stuck in a human body, Artemis Fowl's to top it all, I think I deserve a bit of a treat after you dragged me in to this mess."

"Well this is another fine mess you've gotten us into." Orion chuckled at Artemis, and Root smiled a bit too at the quote. As it turned out Root loved Laurel and Hardy, though Artemis had no idea why.

Before Artemis could retort, Holly broke the silence in the room.

"Soooo, Commander Root's personality now inhabits Artemis body as well and we're just going to sit back and accept that? We're not going to discuss it?"

"What's there to discuss?" Trouble shrugged. "It's just further proof that Fowl is off his rocker."

Holly frowned at Trouble before Argon said. "Although a gross simplification, Trouble is correct. An increase in personalities suggests the Complex is continuing despite treatment. Even a personality that was real must've been created by the Complex."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Holly asked.

Argon took a breath from his cigar before answering. "We'll carry on the treatment as before, if it continues to have little effect we may need to look at new avenues of treatment."

"Like what?" Root growled. The smoke coming from his mouth seemed to make him even more menacing.

Argon coughed nervously. "We don't have to discuss that now Commander. We lack solid proof Atlantis is not being effected. Still I think the Major Short and Commander Kelp should leave now."

"It's not the end of visiting time." Holly said obstinately, crossing her arms. "And I'm not leaving till the end."

Trouble looked disappointed for a second before returning to normal disposition.

"Fine," Doctor Argon replied. "But I'll be waiting outside for you to leave."

Once Argon had left, Holly asked Root. "Commander is that really you?"  
Root paused a second before answering. "Artemis say's, "I'm as close to Root as his subconscious can come up with, which is pretty close to the real Root." Cocky Mud Boy."

"But what do you think Commander?"

"Of course I'm not the real Root. I just have to look in the mirror too see I'm actually an Artemis Fowl psychotic imagining. Still I'd like to say a proper goodbye to you both as I probably won't see you both again, and Holly's goodbye in the past doesn't really count."

"How did…"

"As I'm in Artemis' body, I share his memories as well. Now don't interrupt Captain, no sorry, major."

Root took a long pull from his cigar and blew a smoke ring before starting.

"Commander Trouble Kelp, I recall from Artemis' memories you weren't the Commander to replace me. That was a serious mess up as you were always my first choice for replacement. Your Gung Ho attitude, and no nonsense way of dealing with things is precisely what any Commander needs. The only advice I'll give you is this. Do it for the people." Trouble made to salute but seemed to have misgivings at doing so to an emulated Commander in a mud boy.

Root shrugged and turned to Holly.

"Major Holly Short, I'm glad that you managed to get back into the LEP, although I agree, you leaving was the right thing to do. Just remember what I said before I died and you'll be fine."

Before Holly could answer he addressed them both again.

"You should go now if you want to see that film, you two."

Trouble checked his watch and said. "He's right you know it starts in ten minutes, we didn't really have time to stop here anyway."

Holly scowled but agreed that they needed to go.

Trouble looked at Root and asked. "I assume you are fine with us, well going out"

Root shrugged. "What you do in your personal time isn't for me to meddle with." He took a puff on his cigar before continuing. "Personally though I think you work well together."

"WHAT?" Orion said mentally standing up. To this point both Orion and Artemis had been watching the proceedings without comment, apart from remarks on health and cigars, but those were general background complaints. Now Orion was mentally glaring and Artemis had only stiffened slightly.

Root ignored them both till Holly and Trouble had left before answering.

"What do you want to say you overly theatrical lump of thoughts?"

Orion mentally paced as he shouted. "What do you think I've got to say? You know how I and Artemis feel about Holly, yet you go off and push her towards Trouble."

Root raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure Holly can make her own choices despite what I'm going to say, Orion. And it seems to me she has chosen Trouble over, well, either of you."

"It isn't over till the wedding bells ring." Orion replied, and Artemis winced at the cliché.

Root snorted. "Orion I share you're memories remember. Holly seemed to make it very plain she didn't want a relationship with a mud boy."

"But…"

"But nothing," Root roared. "We have little to say Holly likes you that way at all, Orion, and what there is, is circumstantial. You are different species, the aging difference makes the whole thing laughable and its not as if you have a lot in common is it?"

Orion stopped pacing shocked at the outburst and sat down. He didn't say anything for a while, and then he said. "What do you think, Artemis?"

Artemis had remained torn as he listened to the argument, and he was still torn when he gave what seemed a cool collected answer.

"The evidence is stacked in Root's favour Orion. Trouble is a better match than we are, and even if he was not, we do not have that much chance anyway."

Orion seemed to collapse in on himself at this, his normally bubbly self deflated. He looked pitiful, and precisely how Artemis felt. After a long silence Orion stood up again and went skulking off to another part of the mind, leaving Root and Artemis relatively alone.

"I'm sorry I had to say that Artemis." Root said in a much softer voice.

Artemis shook his head. "Do not be. Someone needed to set him straight and I was not going to." Artemis smiled ironically. "Somehow his huge mixture of ego and hope somehow gave me hope. It was silly."

Root looked slightly embarrassed. "Still I'd like to make it up. So what can I do for you?"

"Well we can continue my project, if you want to."

"Project?"

"Check the last few days worth of memories." Artemis paused. "Few days." He repeated.

Root groaned at the five and submerged himself in Artemis' most recent memories.

Root scowled "You've been hacking, Fowl. I should turn in those files."

"Check the reason I have been hacking. It is a good reason for hacking illegally."

Grumbling Root checked what Fowl had been doing. "Well I suppose then I can overlook the matter."

"Will you help me? An emulation could be helpful for advice on this particular matter."

Root finished his cigar and picked up the laptop. "Manipulative mud boy aren't you?"

Artemis grinned. "That is one of my few good points, Commander Root."

_A/N: Thanks to my reviewers who got me to finish this chapter. Anyway what did you think? Was Root in character? Was he too mean to Orion? Give us your feedback, please._


	6. Next Week

Next Week…

_Dr. J. Argon case note: It has been a week since the emulation of Commander Root has emerged, and I am forced to conclude that with Artemis' deteriorating mental condition, that shock therapy nor the medication we are giving are having too little effect on the patient. We had given his dose according to BMI, and have steadily increased it as it fails to make a large difference. Fowl is now on enough medication to kill any fairy apart from MAYBE a troll. I have requested from the council for them to import human medication, but they refused. Not surprising mind. Most human medication is deadly to fairies and there would be a lot of hassle surrounding its transport. Still I haven't given up hope on the matter yet. _

During the last week, Artemis Fowl had been doing badly. His fits were becoming more and more frequent and violent, headaches were a constant annoyance, Holly and Trouble had been on two more dates, and the fighting between Root and Orion never helped. The only positive was that Artemis' project was coming along nicely as both Root and Orion helped with it though Orion had taken to sulking off in some other part of the brain.

Artemis was thinking about all this as he lay in bed, staring at the blank ceiling.

"Sitting around moping is not going to help anything mud boy." Root said, as he smoked an imaginary cigar.

"Moping?" Artemis snorted. "I am not a typical moody teenager, I do not mope. I was merely reviewing the previous week's events."

"Call it what you want, you still should do something."

Sighing Artemis got up and dressed, putting his gold coin in his inside jacket pocket, and checked the flash drive was still safe. Checking the time Artemis was surprised to see he had slept to mid afternoon.

"Strange," Thought Artemis. There was a pause before he added. "Yes, quite unusually odd."

Ignoring the five Root asked. "What's strange?"

"Well, I do not usually sleep this late and Dr. Argon has not given me any medication or even come to see me today. Strange."

"Well go on then mud boy, you have an answer for everything, why is that?"

"Medication is not working. If it was, he would not stop the treatment. The doctor is probably getting his underlings to create some new medicine." Artemis then winced as his headache spiked. Root gritted his teeth at the headache, before saying.

"Maybe you should check the hospitals cameras anyway."

Artemis turned to his laptop and his headache spiked again and he was struck by the awareness of fours around his. Root had said a sentence with 8 words; his laptop was 4 sided, 4 cornered and a hundred keys, 25, fours. Artemis dug his hands into his eyes and started rocking, four, four, four, four, four. Root was yelling something and Orion rushed in to try and calm Artemis down. But nothing was helping and Artemis was starting to lose control as his arms and legs flailed in panic. Then he heard something in the panic, he heard Orion yell, "The coin".

Artemis fumbled in his panic to try and pull it out of an inside pocket, which turned out to be impossible in his condition of fear.

"I can not get it." Artemis rocked in terror as the four's seemed to close in, as if the room was getting smaller.

"YOU WILL GET IT, NOW!"

…

Next thing Artemis knew he was lying on the floor curled up and rubbing the coin, more like a child than ever. He could feel bruises and cuts everywhere a result of his flailing, and he felt…cold. Artemis didn't want to leave that position, he just wanted to lie here with a nice circular object, and not have to think about those fours. How long he had been in his fit and how long he lay there Artemis would later find out on the CCTV. But the next thing he knew he was being pulled to his feet by...

"Holly?"

The elf looked paler than her usual healthy nut brown, and despite being much stronger than the average elf still struggled to support Artemis.

"Come on Artemis. You've got to at least try to stand up."

Artemis seemed to do half the job and sat up straight on his bed and it was then he realised his jacket was torn. Quickly inspecting the rip, he concluded he must've torn his way through to get at the coin. Ignoring this unsettling evidence, Artemis attempted to compose himself in front of Holly, despite the destroyed state of his jacket and shirt, which had gotten a bit of the frenzy as well.

Holly was studying him intently before asking. "Are you alright, Artemis?"

Although Artemis winced at the four but he was still clenching the coin which seemed to give him solace. As to the actual question, he really didn't want to answer truthfully to Holly, she had enough problems at the moment without renewed worry for him. Yet he didn't want to lie, he tried the alternative.

"Are you? No Trouble today."

Trouble had taken to accompanying Holly on these visits. Artemis watched as Holly fought between answering the question and insisting on getting an answer to her own.

"No," Holly looked a bit sour. "Trouble made it quite clear he didn't want to come today."

Interested Artemis followed up with. "What did Trouble say, Holly?"

Holly scowled. "He said that "I don't want to go see you're psycho mud boy friend each night.""

Artemis had suspected something along those lines, but he doubted that it was merely the Commander's opinion of him that had caused this. Still Artemis decided to change the subject, to avoid Holly's question.

"So how has LEP been over the last week? Been able to cope without me?"

Holly smiled and punched Artemis on the shoulder. "You know the LEP could cope before you came along."

"Like how you coped so well with the Fowl Incident."

"That's not fair. You caused that."

Artemis shrugged. "Well you would have been really in trouble if I had not been around to stop Opal the first time."

"If you hadn't been around, there wouldn't have been an incident."

Artemis mocked being wounded. "You make it sound as if it is my fault."

"Maybe it is, we've had more problems when you were around than any other time in LEP history."

"What you think there is some kind of force that makes bad things happen when I am around. Like the main character in a story?"

Holly nodded.

"Now, that is just silly," Artemis chuckled. "Imagine us in a book."

…

A few minutes later, when Holly had left Artemis addressed the other psyches.

"Alright which one of you made me ruin the best clothes I have with me?"

"It wasn't me or Orion." Root said.

"Well who was it then?"

"The new guy. His names Sirius, nice chap actually."

Artemis buried his face in his hands. "Please, no, not another psyche."

"Well I like that." Sirius said. "Try to help and this is what I get."

"Don't worry about it Sirius he was moping like this, this morning as well." Root said patting Sirius on the shoulder.

"I was not moping, Root."

"No you were, what was it? "Reviewing the previous week's events"."

"That does sound a bit mopish, Artemis." Orion said reclining in an armchair.

"One, "mopish" is not a word, and two your one to talk Orion."

"I was heartbroken!" Orion said dramatically. "After this oaf was so callous." Pointing at Root.

"Who are you calling an oaf you escapee from a Shakespearean play?"

Artemis snorted.

Before the argument could escalate from that, Sirius interrupted.

"You know if you were to check the cameras before and after Holly came in, you should see an interesting conversation she had with Dr. Argon."

The curiosity this statement caused seemed to defuse the argument for now, and Artemis quickly picked up his laptop.

After the whole fooling the cameras then hacking into the hospitals memory files. Artemis was searching through the tape of the day so far, fast forwarding to the bit where Holly came into his room. He then rewound to watch her walk backwards and out the door, to the beginning of, as Sirius had accurately put, an interesting conversation between Holly and Argon, which went like this.

"Good afternoon Major Short."

Holly mirrored the greeting before asking. "How's Artemis doing?"

Dr. Argon looked slightly uncomfortable. "Not well I'm afraid. The medication and treatment usually used is having little effect on him."

"Well increase the meds then."

"We have been, he's now on enough to work on a troll, and we simply cannot up the dosage any more."

"What so you're just going to give up?"

"That's jumping the gun a bit Major."

Holly took a breath and then replied. "Sorry doctor, what will you do now?"

Dr Argon sighed. "I attempted to get the council's permission to import some mud man medicine from the surface. But they were…unhelpful."

Scowling Holly said. "So why are you telling me?"

"Well," Dr. Argon looked around and Artemis had to lip read the next few sentences. "Since you're in the LEP it wouldn't be the most difficult thing for you to…smuggle some down."

"You do realise that would be illegal."

"Why do you think I'm whispering? Besides it would be breaking it for a good reason?"

Holly paused for a minute before saying. "Can't you make some medication for Artemis down here?"

Argon nodded. "In time we could replicate and make better medicine for the mud men than the mud men have. Time I don't think Artemis has. Remember there is very little medical records on humans, it's sort of down there with medical records on animals."

Holly opened her mouth to say something but Argon interrupted.

"That's not my opinion, that's just how it is. Anyway as a result there would be a lot of tests, and we'd have to start mainly from scratch. Most fairy medication is dependent on magic, there are just so many problems, and it would really help if we had some medical information and medication for humans."

"What about the internet?"

The doctor rubbed his temples. "Look, Major. This was the best idea the fairies at the lab could come up with, any other alley we could have taken, has been taken and ended up as a dead end. As to actually answer though the internet only has so much detail, Wikipedia can only answer so many questions."

There was another long pause, before Holly said, "I'll have to think about it." And entered Artemis' room.

…

Fast forwarding to when Holly re-emerged from the room. Artemis and his psyches watched as Holly said to Dr. Argon, who had been waiting for her.

"Fine, I'll see what I can do."

_A/N: So another psyche (loving that word right no) has joined in. Next chapter, some of the more darker elements of Artemis gets explored. Yay!_


	7. Purity

**A/N: Thanks readers for being patient. Here's the chapter so enjoy.**

Purity

_Dr. J. Argon case note: The patient shows signs of worsening conditions over the last week, despite attempted tests with human medication. From footage gathered from his cell, a new personality emerged within Fowl, going by the name Sirius. His first mentioning was shortly after we procured our shipments of supplies. The evidence suggests Sirius is a calming factor, seemingly very loyal and unbending in his perception of right and wrong. It's difficult to argue with someone who won't budge on a matter, as a result most arguments die out. Still over the last week he hasn't become principle, so any information is second hand._

_Of course if Atlantis, breaks too much of Artemis' personality up, we won't be able to reconstruct him properly at all._

Artemis was typing his diary, but was doing it for the necessity of doing something, he really wasn't into it.

Inside his head the others reflected his mood, Orion lay face down on the floor, tapping "bored" in Morse code, and Root was twirling a cigar in his fingers not even bothering to light it.

Sirius wasn't there, he had decided to hunt through old memories in the sub-conscious, and every so often he would bring back an interesting clip of memory, such as Artemis' first felony, (stealing a lollipop, which his father had covered in foul tasting varnish, thus putting Artemis off lollies forever).

The only thing that was only vaguely interesting to them at the moment was Artemis' theory as to why they were so bored.

"Boredom," Artemis argued. "Is usually caused by a lack of imagination, it is quite usual for there to be something interesting to do but the patient just have to think of it. As none of us can think of anything to do, we all are lacking imagination."

"Apart from Sirius." Orion mumbled into the floor.

"No, not even Sirius is being imaginative at the moment. He's just wandering around in the hope something will happen."

"So?" Root grunted from his seat. "So what if we lack imagination? You've been here for over a fortnight, you will have done everything."

"I spend longer stints in my office, being in a small space for a long time does not have anything to do with my boredom."

"So what do you blame it on?" Sirius said as he walked in wearing a large "New Guy" badge Orion insisted he wore.

Artemis paused as he tried to get over the badge Sirius was wearing; he had to do this every time Sirius entered the room.

"Well because it is happening to all of us it makes sense it is the medication, that it is affecting the brain as a whole."

"Why give us drugs to stop being imaginative?" Orion asked, still face down.

"Well if we wanted to escape, we could not come up with a plan if we lacked imagination. Or if they have discovered my project they could be doing this to stop me working on it. Alternatively it could be new meds with these side effects, other side effects may include…"

"Of course you could just be paranoid and we are bored." Sirius interrupted.

Artemis frowned. "I suppose that is possible."

"Precisely," Sirius said as he took a seat.

And for a few minutes there was silence as they all tried to think of something to do. It would've been a few hours if it hadn't of been for the marble sized speck of light, which meandered in from the subconscious.

"What's that?" Root growled, as he chewed on his cigar.

Orion looked up.

"A ball of light." He said unhelpfully and watched it move around lazily.

"Very helpful." Root snarled sarcastically, and as the ball approached him he slapped it away.

It's hard to tell if the ball got pissed off at that. Something about the sudden red glow it gave off and the rapid increase in size as hundreds of balls of light started gathering towards it, seemed to say angry.

Eventually the marble sized ball of light had turned into a two metre diameter sphere of red.

Then it started to fade, to become more and more transparent, until it vanished, leaving only a new Artemis figure.

Of course all personalities look like Artemis so they are usually characterized by their dress code.

Orion usually wore clothes most teenagers would wear, long sleeved shirts, jeans etc. Artemis of course wore his customary suit when he was in, and Sirius, for some reason, wore a doctor's overcoat with a light green shirt underneath.

Root, looked like Root should and wore a brown LEP jumpsuit.

But this guy, wore a crisp white suit, and there was no small changes of colour as is usual with white suits. No, this guy had white down to the colour of his eyes.

Orion rolled his face over a bit taking in the new personality. "Nice suit." He said before turning back down. "Give him the badge, Sirius."

As Sirius handed over the badge to the new "New Guy" he looked at it for a second, as if it had personally killed his entire family, before it burst into flames.

Orion jumped up. "Hey that took me ages to make."

Sirius chucked an identical "New Guy" badge over to him. "It's not exactly difficult to create something in a world where matter means nothing." Then the badge disappeared again

"Still it's the principle." Orion grumbled.

The new personality looked around, slowly taking in each personality before finally resting on Root.

"My name is Gaia." He said, and then he pointed at Commander Root. "And you are banished."

Then Root exploded into hundreds of similar light balls, all of which faded out quickly.

Orion screamed, Sirius yelled and Artemis was so shocked he nearly said, "I say," in stereotypical posh.

All that was left of the late (again) Commander Root, was the chair he had been sitting on, there wasn't even a scorch mark.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Orion shouted, attempting an angry but it turned into a scared one. "I'm not saying he didn't have it coming to him, after he was so mean to me about Holly, but still, a bit extreme."

"When you are definite about something," Gaia replied. "You have to follow it at once and up to the hilt. I'd decided to exterminate the non-Artemis personalities, and I followed through."

"So you do things shall we say," Orion struck a dramatic pose. "To the EXTREME!"

Gaia blinked at him. "I'll make you disappear too, if I deem you worthless, stupid or impure."

"To the EXTREME. Oh wait, you're not joking."

"No."

"Orion, those are your best qualities, face it, your numbers up, that number being four." Artemis said.

"Yeah… wait… NO!" Orion exclaimed. "You'd all be slaves of Turnball if it weren't for me."

"He does have a point, Artemis." Sirius said, before turning to Gaia. "But even if he didn't you can't destroy someone for being any of what you said."

Gaia raised an eyebrow. "Why not? They are a drain on resources otherwise, and Commander Root was an unnecessary drain on the body's mental capacity, and he wasn't a proper personality anyway."

Sirius glared at Orion. "Everyone is just as important as anyone else. We are all unique stores of memories, thoughts and opinions. That is what makes everyone valuable."

Gaia blinked again. "It doesn't matter what you think." He pointed at Sirius. "Especially if you cease to exist."

Nothing happened.

"You won't get rid of me that easy, you bastard." Sirius shouted, before chucking a fire ball at Gaia. Gaia swatted the fire ball aside, and Orion jumped behind the sofa to avoid the redirected missile, saying a very muffled. "Crikey!"

Before all hell was let loose.

…

Artemis was sitting calmly on his bed, meditating, when Holly entered. He didn't seem to notice Holly was there until she sat down in front of him, and even then he opened his eyes slowly, and unfocused.

"Hello Holly." Artemis said.

His voice sounded so tired Holly had to fight not to yawn herself.

"Tired Artemis?"

Artemis smiled. "Yes it has been a very… active and unusual day."

Holly looked round the small room. Unless Artemis ran in circles there wouldn't be much activity in here. But Holly decided to let it slide. But she wouldn't let the violent wince of pain that flashed across Artemis face slide.

"Artemis?" Holly inquired worried.

"Sorry, Holly. I have a splitting headache; Gaia and Sirius are really having it out."

"Who?"

"Just a pair of warring personalities. Orion is getting traumatized in there." Artemis said, in a matter of fact voice. "You see he accidently gets in the crossfire, and he moans a lot when he gets cross fired."

Holly was worriedly checking Artemis face for any sign of a joke. She didn't find one.

"What's it like?" she said.

Artemis rubbed his temple.

"Think about all the things our imaginations can come up with, time bombs, black holes. Think of all that destructive power one can imagine. Now put that into a world where, not only is that power real, but also there are two opposing forces using this power to its limits, which there aren't many."

Artemis looked up at her.

"It is absolute chaos in there."

Artemis' ragged expression on his usually collected and calm face looked completely wrong, and Holly could guess that he was holding back how bad it really felt.

Wordlessly Holly crawled closer and curled her arms around Artemis in a comforting hug. Artemis momentarily stiffened at the contact but quickly relaxed into it and hugged back. But even this simple gesture to each other was not enough to escape their circumstance, as, hardly a minute into the hug; Holly felt Artemis's fingers in the middle of her back. They were tapping. Tapping in fives.

Holly tried to ignore it, but it was something that once noticed, couldn't go unnoticed. She tried to distract herself with her other senses, trying to concentrate on how warm Artemis was, the sound and feel of his breathing, and when she smelt him he smelled of fear, a mirror of her own feelings.

Holly's fear wasn't the fear of death; any good soldier resigns themselves to that when they put on the uniform.

No, this fear was altogether much harder to deal with, the fear of losing someone who is your friend and maybe more. She was scared, every time she opened Artemis's door, that one day it would no longer be Artemis behind there.

And even when she was reassured that Artemis was still around, she couldn't escape that initial fear. For even while Holly talked to him he seemed to get further away from who he was, as if slowly fading away.

No…scared didn't even come close to how she felt.

Holly could feel her eyes starting to water.

"I've got to go, Artemis." And before Artemis could even comprehend this sentence properly Holly had rushed out of the room, leaving only one thought with Artemis.

"That was unusual of Holly."

A thought that a previous Artemis would follow up on.

This Artemis though had forgotten it in five minutes.

**So? Good, bad, boring? All input is good in my opinion, so please give it.**

**Thanks. **


	8. On the Psyches thus far

On the Psyches thus Far

This chapter is a direct copy of chapter 8 from Dr. J. Argon's book, The Artemis Complex. All the words from this sentence on belong to Dr. Argon, and I own none of them.

_Up to this point Artemis had been at a level two stage of mental disintegration, where his obsessions had taken up a small portion of his brain power, and the subject would act normally but for the little things and sometimes differing personalities._

_However level three is the "big one" as it were, when obsessions and differing personalities take control, and the initial personality, starts losing itself unable to centre upon memories, thoughts or characteristics._

_Due to Fowl's degree of self control, it had taken Atlantis a lot longer before this crucial change in stages. _

_It also happens to be the last chance to salvage the original personality, before stage 4._

_However on the 17__th__ of September, Artemis Fowl was diagnosed with 3__rd__ stage Atlantis and over the next week we saw a lot less of Artemis Fowl, instead varying personalities would appear._

_It was about now I could draw up meaningful notes on each of the personalities. Most of them seemed a lot more open than Artemis was and the interviews became less of a waste of time. Although interestingly none of them would give any opinion or facts on any other personality._

_Orion: The first personality to emerge according to the report from Major Short. _

_Originally highly confused over the difference between fiction and non-fiction, to counter this confusion Orion spends most of his time researching, getting through the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica within the day. _

_His actual personality however I would say is much closer to Artemis than many would believe. I would hazard that if Artemis was ever to get really drunk the result would be close to Orion. He seems to lack inhibition and is a lot more open, rather than the highly reserved Artemis. I don't want to think about the result of Orion getting drunk though._

_Sirius: Apparently the third one to emerge (the second one is presumed in hiding)._

_His name seems to say it all. Dogged, stubborn and loyal. Exceptionally moral and doesn't seem to bend his opinion on anything. Quite probably a reaction to the highly immoral and questionable acts Artemis has committed. When asked in the interview why he wouldn't do something his answer was, "I will not compromise my integrity or who I am. That is why I won't do it."_

_Sirius also seems to display exceptional speed and skill in learning things, especially in martial arts which seems to be his main area of interest, although warfare and tactics seem important too._

_Gaia: Was the highest profiled personality until the end of the week._

_Gaia displays the highest intelligence among the personalities so far, is obsessed with "purity" and "cleanliness" and actively shows his contempt for seemingly everything. When asked about this extreme contempt and who it was directed at, he replied. "Everything, for its idiocy and waste."_

_This was the one of the few questions answered without a sneer. I think that this personality is a more extreme version of the 12 year old Artemis Fowl, possibly the result if he hadn't met The People._

_Opal Koboi: Highly accurate emulation of the real one. Emerged a few days ago and was restrained as soon as identification was confirmed. Security was immediately tightened and the emulation implies extreme worsening of patient. However breakthroughs in the medicine department would lead us to believe we won't have her for long._

_For a psyche analysis of Opal Koboi, please read my previous book, Opal Koboi: The Goblin Revolution. _

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, a lot happens in the next one so hopefully that'll make up for it. All I'll say is the most dangerous and last original personality will emerge in it.

And for those who are sick of Opal Koboi as a villain, she's not going to be, anything compared to Artemis' next psyche.


	9. Being Mindfull

Being Mindfull

Let's focus on a Hydrogen atom.

This smallest of atoms is the building block for all others, but we aren't going to go into that.

The atom is made up of other things, but we aren't going to go into that.

Hydrogen is the most common element throughout the universe, but we aren't going to go into that either.

Nah, we're just going to peacefully enjoy the atom bouncing around.

If we zoom out a bit we see it's chemically connected to another hydrogen and an oxygen.

We zoom out a bit further and we see millions of these particles all zipping about happily.

All of which make up a tiny speck of dew balancing precariously on a blade of grass, in the early sunlight.

The calming world of physics.

Then it was ruined when a horse trampled through it all, the rider being completely disrespectful and insultingly unaware of the poor speck of dew, leaving dirty, muddy hoof prints on the land.

If we catch up to the culprits we see the horse in full battle armour, and the rider wearing similar plate armour and a helmet that hid the person's face.

The duo were heading for a small camp just behind a hill, detectable only by a small amount of smoke rising from the area. As they approached the rider could make out two others by the fire.

Dismounting the horse, the armoured man said.

"The fortress is completely impenetrable, there are no structural weaknesses, no doors, windows, nothing but a great big castle."

One of them looked up at the mass of metal and asked.

"What the hell are you doing Orion?"

Orion pulled off his helmet and scratched his scalp. "What are you talking about Sirius?"

"Well…" Sirius beckoned to the suit of armour Orion was clad in. "This. Why are you dressed like that? You look stupid."

Orion drew himself up. "We are about to go into a full out conflict with our mortal enemy, I need something to protect me."

Sirius rubbed his eyes in annoyance. "Orion what you wear is purely aesthetical. There is no protection other than our imagination in here. The only reason we are fighting in a field is because Opal has imagined this place. Look."

Orion suddenly felt a sharp pain under his gauntlet, ripping it off he found a small burn.

"What did you do that for?"

"To prove armour is useless here. You might as well wear something comfortable."

"I am comfortable, thank you." Orion said coldly.

"But… You know what I'm not going to bother." Sirius turned to Gaia who was floating a few feet above what he called "the filthy ground".

"So what's the plan?"

Without moving from his floating lotus position Gaia replied. "Just because we are working together against Opal Koboi, doesn't mean I have to talk with you."

"Well if we are going to have a plan we need to discuss it."

"No plan, can't have one when imagination is our and there limit. We go in, erase her, then I can get back to erasing other useless personalities."

"Charming." Orion said sarcastically, as Gaia left his floating position and walked away, his white suit gleaming in the early morning light.

Sirius scowled, and whispered to Orion. "Be on guard, Orion. I wouldn't put it past him to kill us before we deal with Opal."

Orion nodded and they both followed Gaia, towards the fortress.

Several relative hours later, after a load of explosions, flashes of light and other noisy displays, the three of them returned to the camp. Orion walked as his horse had died, and carried his helmet as it had been bashed in so heavily he could no longer wear it.

Sirius's hair was sticking up on end (caused by a bolt of lightning) and his face was blackened with soot, mud and other assorted grime and Gaia looked no different as he hovered back too, although if you looked closely the hovering was a bit more unstable than before.

However when they returned to the campfire there was already someone there, a new personality. This new psyche was wearing brown eastern robes, similar in style to a karate outfit and wore a large black cloak over that. As Orion, Sirius and Gaia came closer he looked up from the fire and surveyed them, looking unsurprised at the states they were in, before then looking back at the flickering fire.

The other psyches sat down too (Gaia lowered his hovering) and there was silence between them as they all waited for someone else to start the conversation.

It was Orion who cracked first.

"So what's the name of our new comrade in arms?"

The stranger stood up and stretched, before looking in the direction of the fortress Opal had built. "My name is Shu, and you should not be quick to assume I am a comrade."

"Well you haven't tried to kill any of us yet. That's a good start."

Shu ignored this and instead said. "I would've been surprised if you had managed to defeat Opal together."

Sirius scowled and Gaia's face stiffened. "Why do you say that?" Sirius replied trying to stay polite.

Shu appraised Sirius before answering with a snort. "You went in with no plan, a flimsy alliance and you were fighting Opal Koboi in a fortification. I believe it was Sun Tzu who said one should attack a fortification last."

"To be honest I'm surprised none of you got wiped."

Gaia was scowling too at this point and Sirius's expression had progressed into something horrible.

"Well what would you have done?" Gaia asked. "We are all as powerful as each other in this world."

"While that is true, there are other factors to consider as well. Such as intelligence, imagination, and grasp on the use of imagination as a power." Shu looked around at them all before continuing. "All of which Opal alone greatly exceeds any of us and as you demonstrated you cannot work together well enough for a team effort to work."

"So instead we attack the source of her and our power. The imagination. Then it'll be simpler to destroy her. "

"How are we supposed to do that?" Orion asked bewildered.

"How does that help us, won't we lose our power too?" Sirius added.

Gaia also then supplemented, "How will we destroy her without imagination?"

Shu sighed. "There are more ways to ask a question than using the word how. But to answer the questions, Orion, Artemis is in a hospital, it would be a relatively simple matter of sneaking around and finding a drug to do the job. Sirius, yes our power will be greatly diminished too but we will expect it, Opal won't. And as I said personality effects how we use the power. At the moment Opal is on a "power high". Having never been this powerful she is enjoying it to its fullest extent. Take the power away though and she will panic as she sees her world crumbling around her. Panic we will need to exploit. Gaia, no matter how much of any medication we are given we should still have a bit of imagination left. Opal will waste it by trying to keep her world together, making it a much easier task for us to rip her personality to pieces."

There was silence following this explanation as they mulled this plan over.

Shu wasn't waiting for a response though.

"Of course this is meaningless unless we can get Artemis to find the medication. ARTEMIS." Shu yelled the last bit.

While all this was happening Artemis had been slowly banging his head against the wall, tired by the constant fighting the personalities were having against each other, he hadn't slept properly in days. If it wasn't Sirius VS Gaia, it was Opal VS the others, and now this new guy, Shu, was probably going to make things worse.

As Shu called, Artemis focused vaguely on his voice.

While the plan was explained to him, he came up with several objections, but his will power was drained and he could hardly agree to the task let alone disagree.

At Shu's suggestion Artemis picked up his laptop and after activating his camera protection program, downloaded the schematics and schedule of the hospital, and with the rest of the psyches (barring Opal) they formed a plan.

Sirius stood tensely by the door to Artemis cell, one hand clutching the laptop, which showed the corridors they planned to take to get to the pharmacy, the other hovered the keypad that would open the door.

The plan didn't have to be complex. They would wait until most of the staff left for lunch, rig the cameras, run to the pharmacy keeping an eye on the real feed and avoiding any patrollers.

It was Sirius who was chosen to actually do the running. Artemis wasn't in a fit state to run normally, after a couple of days of psychological pressure, he didn't seem to understand what running was anymore.

As soon as the first few corridors were empty, Sirius punched in the key code and was dashing down the corridor, all the while holding onto the laptop which Shu (controlling Artemis' blue eye) was literally keeping an eye on.

"Doctor, round the corner," Shu warned and Sirius quickly dashed into one of the safe spots they had marked on the schematics. This one was just an empty room, but it was comforting to know which rooms were empty. Sirius waited until the corridors were clear again, before carrying on the run. Fortunately they didn't meet anyone else until they reached the pharmacy.

Sirius leaned against the door, breathing hard in the large cool room. There were shelves everywhere, each with variable bottles on, large, small, bottles of liquids, pills and powders. As Sirius got his breath back Orion broke the silence.

"My God… It's Full of Jars!" No one laughed. Orion scowled and muttered something about he didn't care what they thought that was funny.

Once Sirius had recovered, Shu directed him around the room; searching for several of the different chemicals they thought might work. After five minutes search they had to settle for one of the weaker drugs, unable to find the chemical they wanted in the short time they allowed themselves to search.

But it turned out to be too much time for; as they approached the exit a fairy came in. He saw them. They could all tell he did from the fear in his eyes as they bulged. He opened his mouth to yell. Luckily Orion took over the driving the seat, and quickly jabbed his fingers into the fairies solar plexus, making the fairy wheeze painfully and quietly. As he doubled over Orion clapped the heels of his hands into the fairies temples, before gently lowering the unconscious form to the floor.

This is all happened within a second and with a precision that Madame Ko would've been proud of. However it was kind of ruined by Orion's reaction.

"What do I do? WhatdoIdo?WhatdoIdo?WhatdoIdo?WhatdoIdo?"

In the event of this situation, Orion would step in, hit first and ask questions later. Which he was now doing hysterically, after having pummelled the poor fairy.

"We could kill him." Gaia suggested casually.

"WHAT!" Orion and Sirius mentally screamed at Gaia.

"Impractical," Shu said, as he took over from Orion before he made too much noise. "Killing him would gather too much attention to the situation. Besides we would have to destroy his eyes to stop Foaly's eye reader from detecting us."

He said all of this in a matter of fact way before continuing.

"Best option is for them to dismiss it." Shu looked around searching the larger gas bottles this time, before eventually finding a hallucinogenic anaesthetic.

"A leaky bottle should take care of that." And laying the bottle by the fairies feet opened it, before quickly leaving.

Much later Artemis lay on his bed his body wide awake his mind in a psychological stupor. The session of switching personalities was making him feel even less together than normal. Even now he could feel his personality drifting slowly apart, and his memories became fuzzier and harder to recall. He knew this was late stage three of Atlantis. Stage five wa… No, stage…four was next. Artemis doubted whether any of the doctors had told his friends and family how badly he was actually doing. He should tell them, but somehow couldn't find the simple motivation of phoning them.

He should at least tell Holly, Artemis reasoned, he didn't want to vanish leaving the impression he had hidden things again.

….

"Are you okay, Artemis?"

Artemis lost his nerve and gave the generic answer.

"I am fine, Holly. Thanks. How are things for you?"

Holly shrugged slightly. "Trouble has been giving me grief," And at Artemis' questioning look continued. "I dumped him a few days ago." She seemed to say this more casually than Artemis would've expected. Aren't break ups supposed to be tearful and dramatic things? Especially if it was with such a logical couple.

"I suppose the inner workings of the heart are a different kind of logic to those of science or maths." Artemis thought, which then continued to, "That sounds like something Orion would say on the matter." Deep shame followed this thought, which Orion immediately reacted to.

Ignoring him Artemis asked, "Why did you "dump" him?"

"Several reasons as there usually are. I suppose one of the main reasons was that we are too much alike." At Artemis' puzzled frown she clarified. "I think you do need a few common interests to talk about, but if they like everything you like, then its second only to going out with yourself. And only vain people do that. It's like…"

Holly frowned a bit, trying to come up with an analogy.

"I'm sure Trouble thought it was serious." Artemis thought, before giving the finishing analogy.

"A combustion engine needs oil to run smoothly, but without the fuel to make explosions it won't run at all."

Holly laughed, "I wish there were less real explosions in our engine though."

Artemis initially laughed too until his brain caught up with what she had said, and what Orion was now screaming.

Holly seemed to be aware of it as well as she stopped laughing too leaving them in an awkward silence, which only really ended when Holly said goodbye, leaving Artemis to an exceptionally loud mind, as his psyches talked among themselves.

They seemed to be having a discussion of some sort, the subject being Holly, and what to do next.

"We should strike while the iron his hot." Orion declared powerfully.

"Spare us the clichés, Orion. Besides we don't know the iron is hot." Sirius replied in annoyance.

"It's the hottest it's ever been."

"I somehow doubt that." Shu supplied.

Gaia cut in at this point before Orion could continue. "We shouldn't do anything. This discussion is a waste of brain power."

"BUT IT IS LOVE." Orion shouted dramatically.

Gaia raised an eyebrow. "Love is a device invented by bank managers to make us overdraw, then distract from that fact. Investment wise it's not safe."

("Where have I heard that?" Artemis wondered.)

"Although I don't agree with Gaia's philosophy," Sirius continued. "I think to get emotionally involved in our state of health is irresponsible to both parties, both will only get hurt by such an arrangement."

"But…" Orion tried to come up with an argument, before turning to Shu. "What do you think?"

Shu looked up. "Tactically, love is like any emotion, easily clouds ones judgement and acts as a distraction." But after a pause he continued. "However we can't help becoming emotionally involved, especially in our given situation. So I think our best option is to dispel the distraction as much as possible."

Orion looked nonplussed. "Meaning?"

Shu sighed. "Meaning I'm with you on this one Orion."

"Huzzah!" Orion yelled in triumph, everyone else groaned. "So Artemis you have the casting vote."

Artemis was finding it hard to concentrate, but he already had an answer for this question. "I can't sit back and do nothing, that's what I've always done before. Maybe it's time to change that particular stratagem."

"Well you should do it now." Shu said. "There is a thing called timing in this world, if we don't act now then you're relationship with Holly will remain in this permanent stalemate."

"But what can we do in this cell?" Orion replied, looking around the small room.

Artemis smiled weakly, and picked up the laptop. "And I thought you were supposed to be the romantic one. Even I know a few blunt basics." He said before ordering a box of chocolates, to be delivered to the home of Ms. Holly Short.

A/N: Happy New Year Everyone, although I usually find every year to be about the same, so it's not very new. Anyway hope you enjoyed the chapter, if so review, if not review anyway, (I personally felt the ending was a bit cheesy, it's hard not to be in most romantic situations)

And Yes, the mindful is miss spelt on purpose.

Sorry for not updating for a while, but between exams and Christmas it's been busy. Thanks for staying patient.


	10. Imminent Destruction

Imminent Destruction

Just before Artemis went to bed that night, he took out the pills they had stolen from the pharmacy. He twirled the bottle between his fingers for a while, thinking about the plan. To the rest of the staff it would be as if Artemis was just sleeping, instead of purging a foreign mind. Not that Artemis would be doing much purging, Gaia, Sirius and Shu would be doing the actual assault. Artemis would be attempting to stay principle and Orion was to jump into the breach if for some reason Artemis should fall unconscious, they didn't want Opal getting control of the body.

Artemis popped a sizeable dose down, and waited for the pills to take affect, keeping himself awake by working on several projects at once, from the rebuilding of the Ice Cube to finishing the composition of several orchestral pieces.

Meanwhile, deep in the pit of Artemis' mind, three personalities sat on a hill watching Opals fortress. Sirius looked at Gaia then Shu and asked.

"So, when do we attack?"

"The first sign of loss of power will probably be structural damage." Shu said in a monotone. "When we see the damage, we attack."

"And we just walk towards where there is less damage?"

Shu nodded. "Opal will keep the closer things from falling apart, so the more stable the area the closer she is."

There was silence for a while as they looked down at the door less building. That was until a chunk of brickwork suddenly came away leaving a sizeable entrance.

"Do we count that as "structural damage"?" Sirius said sarcastically before they started running towards the fortress.

Inside was a corridor, lined with eyes. Not painted ones but of flesh and blood, of a cold blue colour. The carpet was composed of a single large animal skin, maybe leopard. But now they were inside the building the damage the pills were doing was more obvious. Tufts of fur were missing and some of the eyes had fallen onto the floor. Sirius had the misfortune of stepping on one, which made a very unpleasant sound hollow ball squelched flat.

Shu didn't stop to admire the décor and marched on oblivious to the staring or squelching. Gaia was floating so didn't make any noise as he followed. Gritting his teeth in disgust Sirius charged after them trying to drown the noises with thundering steps.

As they continued, the walls started to melt and bubble thickly as imagination started to crumble. They could all feel the effects as well, Gaia had descended to walking and they could no longer run without fatigue. Any action became closer to a chore and even Shu momentarily struggled to open the next door. It wasn't worth the effort.

Although the correct direction, it led into what we can only describe as a prison. If you can call the masses of bodies as they filled the cages to bursting point, the living standing on the dead, the rotting smell of hundreds of bodies the heat of thousands, a prison. But all one body. Artemis's. But they weren't Artemis, they weren't even people. They were animals. The faces were exact copies, but for the expression's of hunger and insanity. Some were eating others, tearing through the identical suits to gorge on the organs. Other Artemis' were smashing at the cage trying to escape, some were even being pressed so heavily against it the wire was cutting into the skin. But despite all this the only parts that escaped the cage were dismembered fingers and blood which seeped out of the bottom, pooling around the cage.

Again Shu was unfazed and continued his brisk walk through the room. Gaia was moving very carefully trying and failing to keep the blood off his white suit. He probably would've wanted to torch this room if his imagination would've been powerful enough. Sirius's main concern was for the cage and was silently grateful that it hadn't broken yet. Not that it would last long as the creaking sounds seemed to indicate. This led him to sprint after Shu, feet splashing in the puddles of blood.

As they left the room Gaia was sure to close and lock the door after them.

"What do you think that room was for?" Sirius asked.

"Entertainment." Shu said simply.

"I can think of a few people I'd want to put in cages like that." Gaia mused.

Sirius might've killed Gaia on the spot if they had not heard Opal screeching in the distance.

When they reached the distance, they saw it was… well the closest thing to call it is a control room. However not many control rooms have a wall of hot melted chocolate continually cascading down it sluggishly, nor a giant eye protruding through another as if it had been forced in from outside.

What it did have in common with a control room is the controls, the many screens and an egotistical mad genius in the middle of it all. This particular egotistical mad genius was in a hover chair, which looked like it needed its stabilisers fixing, continually rising and falling to different screens which made up a column of screens all the way to the ceiling. However even in this centre of power one could see the slow ruin creeping in. Many of the screens showed nothing but interference, the giant eye was drying up and the chocolate wall was splattering onto the white tiger fur rug.

Maybe because of this chaos Opal didn't notice the trio for a noticeable amount of time. And when she did she didn't seem to be in a talkative mood. Something about her screaming wordlessly in rage, shooting lasers at them from the hover chair and her immediate rise up towards what appeared to be an escape tunnel, seemed to give that away.

Sirius, seeing Opal making for the exit above, immediately gave chase using the screen column as a makeshift ladder.

Gaia too gave chase though he, with great effort, floated after Opal.

Shu however calmly walked over to a golden bust of Opal and picked it up, and as Opal was nearly within reach of her egress goal, he hailed her attention or, as anyone else would put it, shouted.

"Hey, Opal." And as her attention concentrated on who had called her Shu dropped the bust, which shattered easily.

In the mind, hovering is done very easily by, in the simplest terms, ignoring gravity. By not thinking about it.

So when someone actively drops a priceless bust to the floor in front of you, gravity, falling, that entire area of concept comes to the fore front of ones mind.

The upshot being that you drop. Heavily. Which was precisely what happened to Opal and Gaia. Sirius, fell too but with the column of screens instead which had also been held up by the above hovering principle, and the room was soon filled with breaking glass and different coloured gases as the gas screens turned to broken glass.

Shu stood alone in the room which was dismantling quicker now Opal had been destroyed, still, Shu wasn't worried and poked around the ruins searching for any signs of Gaia or Sirius. When he didn't find any, he let out a ghost of a smile.

"Excellent," he thought, as he allowed the old fortress to fade into nothing. "Just as planned."

**A/N: I kinda wanted to make this chapter longer but I'm typing this at 5AM, and I felt this was a very good cliff hanger. Anyway hope ye enjoyed, and I'll see you next time, with a longer chapter.**


	11. Atlantis

**A/N: Sorry for the hiatus. I really can't say any more than that as I have no justifiable reason for not writing. Chappie to go with apology.**

Atlantis

Holly was smiling as she entered Argon's clinic, despite the fate of being tied to a desk all night later. Even to a casual observer one could notice the difference between the Holly yesterday and the Holly today. But the difference wasn't just in attitude, which is all the said passing observer notice, but also a subtle change in appearance. Nothing dramatic, just a greater attention to detail and effort.

But as Holly approached Artemis' room she noticed Dr. Argon standing outside again looking very sombre.

"Good Afternoon Captain."

"Is there a particular reason you are in my way?" Holly asked, cutting to the chase.

Argon's mouth tightened slightly. "Although it is visitor time and I won't stop you if you want to carry on with your visit, but I must strongly recommend that you leave and don't return for at least a week."

Holly frowned. "And why would you **recommend **that?"

"Because at present it isn't Artemis in there. Or indeed any personality."

"So he's unconscious?"

"No, but…"

"What's the problem then?" And Holly pushed past him into the room.

Artemis was lying on the floor, curled into a tight ball and still in his pyjamas. Usually he would be thinking about who had just entered the room, but at present there were only two continuous thoughts in his mind.

"The four's are around me. They're everywhere. Just waiting for the moment to strike."

"The coin has no corners, no four's. No corners, no four's." This thought was accompanied by continually rubbing the holed fairy coin.

That was until Holly's eyes met his.

Then a wash of memories surged into the thought cauldron. Memories of deception, suppression and guilt.

Artemis closed his eyes trying to concentrate on the coin, the four-less coin.

"Golden, circular, 360 degrees…" At this point the paranoia overtook.

"4 to the power of 4.24 when the 4 is recurring is 360."

Holly had no sooner lowered her eyes to Artemis' when he started screaming. He stood up quickly and violently wildly throwing the coin somewhere. Artemis then proceeded to tear at his hair, punch himself, and bash his head against the hardest material in the room which happened to be the window, all the while screaming as if in agony. As Holly tried to pull Artemis away from the window she noticed a beam of light. Shunting Artemis they fell to the floor just before a laser burnt through the window passing through the space Artemis had been moments before.

"Please don't let it be my fault." Artemis said weakly, tears in his eyes staring at Holly. Holly then had a struggle between staying and consoling with Artemis or to chase after the would be assassin with the rest of the LEP. The cop won.

But on her way out Holly nearly slipped on the thrown coin. This coin had a hole in. Picking it up Holly hesitated before taking it with her.

But as Holly left something other than tears filled Artemis' eyes.

_Dr. J. Argon case note: After the events of today, and seeing Artemis' reaction to Holly she (and indeed all personal visits) have been banned. Up till now evidence has been inconclusive but it is obvious Artemis' condition isn't improved by these visits. When informing Captain Short of this I expected huge resistance to the decision. But all she did was rub the coin Fowl had thrown at her, as if she hadn't heard. I was about to repeat myself when she looked up at me fiercely. "Just make him better." She snapped before leaving at a very brisk march. Just short of a run. I would be informed later that she had called in sick. _

**A/N: You know I did have an overall plan for the story but after what happened in last chapter it got completely thrown into the air. At that point even I wasn't sure what was happening and I was writing it. :D Hopefully its back on track now. And yes I know 4^4.24 is always only a little more than 359. That is unless an ill Artemis is doing the maths.**


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